Energy Market Update – Weeks 16 & 17

Good day peoples! Bitcoin just climbed a bit. Don’t bother reading anything price related. It’s just bots spamming or sites racking up reader counts. I personally like the one suggestion that I just saw: Everybody google “what is Bitcoin”, in order to trigger the bots! 🙂

What’s Hot

First, a look into the blockchain start-ups in the energy sector. Besides the most popular names, there is not much noise in general. Estonia’s WePower is still looking to expand overseas after initial success on home soil. Power Ledger, the Australian powerhouse, is doing very well. Australia is one of the leading markets in the renewable energy sector. It was a bit interesting to read that WePower was aiming at Australia as well. Let’s see how that develops.

Spanish energy companies Acciona Energy and Iberdrola are both implementing blockchain tech in traditional markets. The two companies combined boast a whopping 70,000 employees spread out over five continents. They are also part of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Whatever they are planning is going to be big and have an impact on the industry in general. Another thing to note here is that blockchain tech is spreading beyond the startup scene.

The Sun Exchange continues to expand in South Africa. Their business model is a bit different from the other startups. Sun Exchange looks for potential solar installations and gets them funded by private investors, which in turn lease them to local schools and businesses. We did an interview recently with Abe Cambridge, their founder and CEO. You can find that interview here.

Read more about the above “5 Companies Spearheading Blockchain For Renewable Energy” in this article from Forbes.

Supply and Demand

Ever increasing energy consumption and some parts of the world lacking proper infrastructure or adequate supply, lead to solutions like the one in the article below – a floating power plant. Karpowership launched the Powership Project in 2007 and supplied the first floating power plant to Iraq in 2010. Personally I favor the green solutions, but understandably there are holes in the energy market and for now this is a very real and viable solution. Just remember to double check your energy requirements before booking a vessel to your shores. The new powerships can generate 486 MW! https://www.ge.com/reports/turn-me-on-the-worlds-largest-powerships-are-helping-to-electrify-asia-africa/

Other Notables

After a couple of successful microgrid ventures, BCPG is aiming for residential projects in Thailand. Solar panels and blockchain are key words here. Project Sun Share involves seven residential projects with a total of 1800 units. Installation will start in the 3rd quarter. Residents will be able to produce, buy and sell electricity via blockchain technology within their communities (source).

WPP Energy GmbH, a private Swiss company, has entered an agreement with Airwire. AirWire Inc, based in California USA, has developed a platform that allows companies and individuals to send cryptocurrency through SMS, email, QR codes, or social media, even if the recipient is not expecting it or has never heard of it. This is quite astonishing news and it will be interesting to see how this evolves (source).

The Chinese government seems negative towards some aspects of cryptocurrencies within their own territories, but it doesn’t stop them from investing abroad. Over 835 acres off the coast of Malacca, Malaysia, are being converted to “Blockchain City.” Besides business and education, Blockchain City will function as a major tourist attraction with an expected 3 million Chinese tourists per year (source).

Outro

Bitfinex and Tether turmoil. Satoshi Nakamoto claims and revelations. A lot of things to be cleared up in the imminent future. There is even a countdown at https://gotsatoshi.com/ and a related Twitter account. Hopefully things work out peacefully and the proper projects can keep building without suffering economic losses due to irrational cryptocurrency markets, corrupt players and wild speculations. Onwards and upwards!

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